Over the past 13 years, the Minnesota Business Ethics Award (MBEA) has recognized 38 Minnesota-based businesses, ranging in size from less than 10 employees to more than 150,000, that have exemplified and promoted ethical conduct for the benefit of the workplace, the marketplace, the environment and the community.

Holiday spending is the most concentrated retail sales event of the year. It also reflects current consumer confidence and is often a bellwether for retailing in the coming year. That’s why we began conducting an annual holiday spending survey in 2002.

With a job offer on the table, far too many people, especially women, are quick to accept without considering their professional worth. According to the 2012 Labor Force Survey, females currently contribute to 47.7% of the labor force, 35.4% held management positions and 22.9% detained senior management positions. With the hiring gap slowly shrinking, both sides of the gender fence should remember that a job offer is just an offer, until a contract is signed.

Noted political commentators Mary Matalin and James Carville spoke to an overflow crowd at the Opus College of Business on Wednesday, November 28, as the latest in the college’s distinguished speaker series. Their announced topic was civility, and they broached the subject both directly and through a sort of “leadership by example” as they civilly laid out their drastically opposed views of the American political landscape in the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election.

Three square meals a day can aid your job search in countless ways including energy, and motivation, but that isn’t the career staple we were referring to. MSPBJ, better known as the Minneapolis/Saint Paul Business Journal is a leading reference in today’s economy, specializing in the industry news, trends, professionals and companies of the Twin Cities.

The Opus College of Business recently hosted a panel of top executives who discussed themes PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey. The executives shared a great deal of advice on succeeding in the ever-changing job market.

Last week Facebook announced its newest endeavor, recruiting. The Social Jobs Partnership application was released, aggregating over 1.7 million openings from Work4 Labs, BranchOut, Jobvite, DirectEmployers and Monster.com. This implementation allows the job search to be taken one step further by allowing users to apply directly through Facebook and instantly share the jobs to their social network.

The Center for Ethical Business Cultures (CEBC) hosted a group of speakers and panelists to reflect on the lessons and insights on the banking and financial crisis. In the eyes of Joe Nocera, a weekly op-ed columnist for The New York Times, the 2008 financial crisis was not about a failure of ethics, but a failure of incentives to align with broader social goals.

In a global world the lessons immigrants have to offer can be the difference between success or failure in business, Glenn Llopis, founder of the Center for Hispanic Leadership, spoke to a group of corporate and nonprofit participants about the six characteristics of the immigrant perspective.

Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva, the world’s first peer to peer micro lending website, joined the UST Symposium of Social Entrepreneurship to talk about creating an entrepreneurial life. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty, one person at a time. Talking with current and aspiring social entrepreneurs at the symposium, Jackley shared the story of how her entrepreneurial life has unfolded.

Small businesses and nonprofit organizations are invited to take advantage of consultation with expert UST business faculty (many of whom also are experienced consultants) and highly trained business students – at affordable rates.

The findings of the 11th annual University of St. Thomas Holiday Spending Sentiment Survey were released today. Equipped with 11 years of research data, University of St. Thomas marketing professors find the mood of holiday shoppers is close to pre-recession levels.

Every entrepreneur has their own story about the adventure they began when launching a new venture. Megan Tamte, co-founder and CEO of the Hot Mama retail chain shared her story with a full house of graduate business students and alumni at a recent Master’s Pub event.

MBA programs have come under fire from many directions in recent times. Depending on the source, MBA students are alleged to be overly analytical “lone wolves” who do not work well in teams, lacking in the so-called soft skills that build interpersonal relationships, and willing to compromise on shady ethical principles to sustain profits and market dominance.